3D Printed Buildings

One exciting application of 3D printing is building construction. A large enough 3D printer can fabricate a building in a single 'print'.

Chinese building company, WinSun, used four large 3D printers, each measuring 10m x 6.6m, to build ten full sized houses, within a day. The printers squirted a mixture of cement and construction waste to build up the walls, layer by layer.

The build cost of these houses was very cheap, with each house printed for under $5,000. This is because inexpensive building materials were used during the printing process and no construction workers were employed.

In theory, any building design could be 3D printed, including skyscrapers, however, for the moment Chinese construction regulations prohibit multi-storey 3D printed houses.